Veterans for Common Sense

June 13, 2008 – A few days ago, a tip was sent to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) research department to check out an organization called Marshall Minute Military Ministries. MRFF has investigated a seemingly endless stream of evangelical ministries and para-church organizations operating within the military, from small Mom and Pop church groups to large scale, military-wide operations like Campus Crusade for Christ’s Military Ministry, who are well on their way to accomplishing their goal of turning our military into a force of “government-paid missionaries for Christ”. Marshall Minute, however, had escaped our attention — until now. (Full disclosure: Chris Rodda is the senior research director of MRFF).

Marshall Minutes is run by Michael G. Marshall of the Armed Forces Baptist Missions (AFBM), an organization on “A Worldwide Quest for the Souls of Men and Women in Uniform and their families.” AFBM’s primary means of evangelizing the military is “church planting,” establishing churches near military bases and then opening “Military Service Centers” to help these churches “reach young, single military men and women with the Gospel of Christ.” Marshall Minute’s particular “field white for the harvest” is the Milwaukee Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS), where new recruits are tested and processed before being sent to basic training, and the ministry plans to “plant” a church near the Great Lakes Naval Base in late 2008 or early 2009.

Nothing seemed all that unusual about Marshall Minute, and I was about to just add this one to our files as yet another example of the many similar military ministries that exist on or near just about every military installation, when a link on their website caught my eye — a link to military recommendations. This link led to two letters of endorsement from military officers, recommending Michael Marshall to other commanders — one from Lt. Col. Ronald L. Jackson, Jr. on Department of the Air Force letterhead, and one from Maj. Alan C. Shaw on Department of Defense letterhead. The letter from Maj. Shaw, written as commander of the Milwaukee MEPS in July 2007, listed among Marshall’s qualifications that he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Service Command (USSC). I naturally assumed that the USSC was a U.S. military entity, but had never heard of it before, so I looked it up.

What I found is that the USSC was a private “disaster relief” organization with no official military affiliation. USSC no longer seems to be an active organization, but appears to have recently been replaced by something called the United States Operational Support Command (USOSC), another private organization with a deceptively official sounding name, founded by Michael Marshall and full of former USSC members. But it’s not the misleading names of these organizations that makes them significant enough for me to be writing this piece about them. Unofficial organizations with official sounding names are a dime a dozen. Many have logos that incorporate images such as the Great Seal of the United States, and some use “.us” rather than “.com” or “.org” URLs for their websites to further the impression that they are government entities. What’s different about the USOSC, and formerly the USSC, is that their members wear military uniforms and rank. This is not only deceptive. IT’S ILLEGAL!

Title 10 of the U.S. Code strictly prohibits any person who isn’t a member of the armed forces from wearing “the uniform, or a distinctive part of the uniform, of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps” or “a uniform any part of which is similar to a distinctive part of the uniform of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps.” There are some exceptions to this law, but none of them would apply to the USSC or USOSC. Even the members of these organizations who are former or retired military, and permitted under certain circumstances to wear the uniform of their former service, are breaking the law. Those who qualify under these exceptions can only wear the uniform of the branch they served in, and cannot, of course, wear the insignia of a higher rank than they held in the military. The USSC and USOSC use the same rank structure as the U.S. Army, but have their own commissioning and promotion qualifications under which most enlisted members seem to hold the rank of sergeant major, and colonels and generals abound. When in their Class “A” and Class “B” uniforms, those USOSC members who did serve in the military wear all the genuine military ribbons and medals they earned during their service; they get more ribbons from the USOSC; and former USSC members add their USSC ribbons. The result is a chest full of ribbons like you’d see on a real general.

Michael Marshall, listed in Maj. Alan Shaw’s endorsement letter as a Lieutenant Colonel in the USSC, doesn’t provide his highest real military rank in his biography, but he was an enlisted man in the Navy from 1972 to 1976. By wearing the USSC uniform, which was essentially the U.S. Army uniform, and the rank insignia of a Lieutenant Colonel, Marshall was doing nothing short of impersonating an Army officer. Even the MEPS Inspector General didn’t recognize the illegality of these Army chaplain look-alikes. According to Maj. Shaw’s letter of endorsement, the IG actually commended them in a report.

According to Title 18 of the U.S. Code, (Crimes and Criminal Procedures): “Whoever, in any place within the jurisdiction of the United States or in the Canal Zone, without authority, wears the uniform or a distinctive part thereof or anything similar to a distinctive part of the uniform of any of the armed forces of the United States, Public Health Service or any auxiliary of such, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”

But has Michael Marshall or any member of the USSC or USOSC been punished? Of course not. In fact, many USSC “officers” have received the “President’s Volunteer Service Award,” created by George W. Bush in 2002. Volunteers who perform a certain number of hours of community service qualify for one of four levels of this award, with the highest level awarded for 4,000 hours.

As Bush clearly explained in an April 2002 speech in Bridgeport, Connecticut: “And so, in my State of the — my State of the Union — or state — my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation — I asked Americans to give 4,000 years — 4,000 hours over the next — the rest of your life — of service to America. That’s what I asked — 4,000 hours.”

While thousands of these awards are given out each year, organizations wanting to give the appearance of official government sanction and/or recognition often post images on their websites of the mass produced “congratulatory letter from the President of the United States” that accompanies the award.

Another link on the Marshall Minute website leads to the website of “In PURSUIT! Ministries,” an organization that sends chaplains to law enforcement agencies as well as MEPS. Featured on the In PURSUIT! website is the organization’s director, Chaplain Tim Sherman, who also holds the rank of major in the USOSC. Sherman is a chaplain at the Fargo, North Dakota MEPS. A photo of Sherman with First Sergeant Rivera of the Los Angeles MEPS shows that the only discernible difference in their uniforms is the color of the name strip above the right shirt pocket, and USOSC instead of U.S. ARMY on the strip above the left pocket. New recruits passing through a MEPS, unfamiliar with various military uniforms and insignia, would have no idea that “Major” Sherman is not an Army officer, and would probably think he outranked the first sergeant and other enlisted personnel who work there.

Michael Marshall is also a chaplain with the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), which is an official auxiliary organization of the United States Air Force, and, according to his ministry’s website, serves as an Air Force chaplain with the 347th Air Force Recruiting Squadron, on orders from Scott Air Force Base. Marshall claims this was done with a “military support authorization.” How this is possible will require a bit more investigation because, according to CAP regulations, a military support authorization can be used to allow a CAP chaplain to be accommodated on an Air Force base for a ceremony or event, such as a wedding or a funeral, but would not appear be used for any kind of long-term position. According to Marshall, his “orders” came from Air Force Lt. Col. Ronald Jackson, the author of his other letter of endorsement.

While the USSC did not impose a religious test on its “officers,” its successor, the USOCS, does. In fact, the USOCS calls itself a ministry. All members must subscribe to the organization’s Doctrinal Statement and Covenant, which, like the doctrinal statements of Marshall Minutes, the Armed Forces Baptist Missions, and In Pursuit! Ministries, includes a belief in the “Pre-Millennial return of Christ” and the “Rapture of the Church.”

USOCS’s Doctrinal Statement also says that “Under no circumstances will we have fellowship with those who deny the Scripture, deny the person or the work of Christ, compromisers or those who are not similar in faith.” How can chaplains from this organization, with a regulation so contrary to the most basic regulations for U.S. military chaplains, be permitted to operate at U.S. military installations and facilities?

MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein, a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate, former JAG, a former White House counsel under President Reagan, and former general counsel to Texas billionaire and two-time presidential candidate Ross Perot, is demanding an investigation: “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the insidious, unconstitutional infiltration of ‘end times,’ fundamentalist Christianity into quite literally every molecule of the U.S. armed forces will very likely require 400 court martials to even BEGIN to remedy. Thus, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is now officially demanding that those responsible within the penumbra of the Department of Defense, and there are many, including Inspectors General, for the aiding, abetting, and endorsing of USOSC proselytizers, feloniously impersonating active duty U.S. military officers and senior NCOs must be subjected immediately to trial by courts martial. Additionally, MRFF is now likewise demanding that all United States Attorneys whose jurisdictions cover localities where USOSC personnel are illegally wearing their proselytizing-enabling, intentionally confusing military ‘uniforms’ in blatant violation of Title 10 of the U.S. Code immediately refer these violations to the FBI for aggressive and swift investigation.”

June 12, 2008 – An attorney for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which runs hospitals and homeless shelters for veterans, told a federal appeals court Thursday that the VA could not conceive of any circumstance where voter registration drives could occur at its facilities.

“This is an activity that could be seen as harming the appearance of the VA’s neutrality,” said Owen Martikan, assistant U.S. attorney representing the agency, adding voter registration drives would interfere with patient medical care and also violate the federal Hatch Act, which limits federal employees from participating in political campaign activities.

“If you cure the problem of overt partisanship, you are creating another problem,” Martikan said. “Once you let in someone else, you are not being neutral unless you let everyone in.”

But Scott Rafferty, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who has spent several years arguing the VA must allow voter registration drives to help wounded former soldiers register and vote, disagreed.

“Integrating veterans into the communities that they live in is the highest honor we can award veterans,” Rafferty told the court.

The issue before a federal appeals court in San Francisco is whether restrictions on voter registration drives at the VA’s campus in nearby Menlo Park are unconstitutional.

The case has national significance. The VA has facilities across the country serving thousands of veterans. In 1994, then-President Bill Clinton ordered the VA to help register veterans. However, the VA ceased allowing voter registration drives during the Bush administration.

Several U.S. senators and California’s secretary of state, all Democrats, have asked the VA to become a voter registration agency like motor vehicle departments. This spring, the VA issued a new policy saying it would help vets — who asked for help — to register and to vote. The VA also said it would allow nonpartisan voter registration drives, but then rescinded the policy on registration drives.

The suit before the federal appeals court is revisiting the question of whether Steve Preminger, chair of the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee — where the Menlo Park facility is located — has standing to question the constitutionality of the VA’s policy.

On Thursday, judges from the three-judge panel asked the VA if there was any circumstance where it could conceive of a nonpartisan voter registration drive. One judge said students at her daughter’s high school were given voter registration forms when they are 17-1/2 years old — and asked why veterans cannot be given the same opportunity?

“It’s a different environment than a school,” Martikan said. “It means diverting resources from patient care.”

Another judge laid out a scenario where anyone who would participate in voter registration efforts would not wear campaign buttons or say what party they belonged to. He asked if the VA would object to a voter registration drive if participants were told “no partisan activities.”

That would not satify the VA, Martikan said, saying, the “VA has different interests.”

Martikan said that Preminger and an associate came onto the VA campus in a car that had an “impeach Bush” bumper sticker. “They introduced themselves as members of the Democratic Party,” he said, adding it was a fiction that registration drive participants could “pretend to be nonpartisan.”

After the hearing, Preminger said his attempts to register voters were neither overtly partisan nor disruptive.

“I don’t carry myself that way — not at all,” he said.

Preminger said Republican Party volunteers have been able to visit the Menlo Park facility to register voters.

June 13, 2008 – A review by the Department of Veterans Affairs finds that women veterans aren’t receiving the same quality of outpatient care as men at about one-third of its facilities.

The review obtained by The Associated Press appears to validate the complaints of advocates and some members of Congress who have said the health care system needs to focus more on women veterans.

Women make up about 5 percent of the VA’s population, but that number is expected to nearly double in the next two years as more women return home from Iraq and Afghanistan and seek care.

The review notes that the VA has created women’s clinics in many hospitals, but it says more clinicians need to be trained in women’s care and more equipment focused on women’s health is needed.

June 11, 2008 – Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama heaped criticism on Republican opponent John McCain for saying it was “not too important” when American troops are withdrawn from Iraq, as Democrats leapt at the chance to attack the Arizona senator’s position on the unpopular war.

But Obama also took a public relations hit Wednesday when Jim Johnson, a manager of the Illinois senator’s vice presidential search team, resigned under criticism over his personal loan deals.

In the third day of their one-on-one bid for the White House — after Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton dropped out of the race — both Obama and McCain appeared somewhat off balance as their campaign message machines were gummed up by distractions.

McCain has been a supporter of the Iraq war, particularly last year’s decision by the White House to boost troop strength to bring down raging violence. He was critical of the early management of the war, but strongly supported last year’s troop build up, now being reversed, and says it was successful.

Obama has opposed the war from the outset and promises to bring American troops home within 16 months of taking office.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Congress | White House | Arizona | Germany | Philadelphia | Afghanistan | Japan | Illinois | Massachusetts | Barack Obama | South Korea | John McCain | Iraq | Fannie Mae | President George W. Bush | Vice President Al Gore | General | Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton | Jim Johnson | Sen. Joe Lieberman | Petraeus | CEO of Countrywide Financial Corp
Their differences got a fresh airing when McCain was asked on NBC television — given the drop in Iraqi violence — if he had a better estimate for when American forces could leave the country.

“No, but that’s not too important,” McCain said. “What’s important is casualties in Iraq.

“Americans are in South Korea. Americans are in Japan. American troops are in Germany. That’s all fine. American casualties, and the ability to withdraw. We will be able to withdraw. … But the key to it is we don’t want any more Americans in harm’s way.”

Democrats quickly declared McCain out of touch with American voter expectations and the needs of the U.S. military, which is hard-pressed to meet its obligations under the strain of troop and equipment commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator who in 2004 entertained asking McCain to join him on the Democratic presidential ticket, lashed out at the Republican candidate.

“It is unbelievably out of touch and inconsistent with the needs and concerns of Americans, and particularly the families of the troops who are over there,” Kerry said. “To them it’s the most important thing in the world when they come home. And it’s the most important thing in the world that we have a commander in chief who understands how you can bring them home.”

At a subsequent town hall meeting in Philadelphia, McCain appeared to directly respond to charges he was insensitive to the needs of veterans and their families.

“I know it (the war) has caused great hardship and pain,” he said. “But I believe that in the conflict in Iraq, with this new strategy, we are succeeding.”

In a teleconference with reporters arranged by McCain’s campaign, Sen. Joe Lieberman accused Democrats of a “partisan attempt to distort John McCain’s words.” Lieberman was Vice President Al Gore’s Democratic running mate in 2000 but switched to become a political independent.

Lieberman said it was clear McCain was “answering a question about what his estimate is based on the success of the surge.”

“And he says he doesn’t have the estimate, because he’s expecting it from General (David) Petraeus sometime in July,” Lieberman said. Petraeus is to report on the war effort as he steps down as top commander there.

McCain has said he was comfortable keeping U.S. forces in Iraq for 100 years, citing the continued presence of American troops in Germany, Japan and South Korea more than a half century.

More recently, he stated he could envision troops withdrawing around 2013 but has refused to fix a date.

Balancing the scales, Obama also was forced into an embarrassing move Wednesday when Jim Johnson, a manager of his vice presidential search team, resigned under criticism over his personal loan deals.

“Jim did not want to distract in any way from the very important task of gathering information about my vice presidential nominee, so he has made a decision to step aside that I accept,” Obama said in a statement. “I remain grateful to Jim for his service and his efforts in this process.”

Johnson, the former chairman of mortgage lender Fannie Mae, received loans with the help of the CEO of Countrywide Financial Corp., which is part of a federal investigation into home financing that is a key factor in the U.S. economic downturn.

Before Wednesday’s apparent missteps, the struggling American economy had dominated the opening days of the McCain-Obama contest, with each candidate falling back on the historic positions of their parties.

McCain, who opposed President George W. Bush’s tax cuts when they were pushed through Congress, now wants to sustain them. Obama is hoping to shift the tax burden more onto the shoulders of big business and the wealthy.

That has produced a lively debate in which McCain has fought back against Obama attacks, arguing that his Democratic opponent’s trade and tax policies would worsen the faltering U.S. economy.

Obama has sought to mine a deep vein of anxiety among voters. The most recent Gallup Poll shows 81{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of Americans hold a negative view of the nation’s economy.

Obama blames the Bush administration for the flagging economy and claims McCain would promote similar policies.

The Gallup survey, meanwhile, had good news for Obama on support among women. Before Clinton withdrew, Obama outdistanced McCain by just 5 percentage points with women voters. Since she pulled out, the number has climbed to a 13-point advantage nationally.

Is the military wrongfully discharging soldiers in order to deny them benefits?

Veterans for Common Sense encourages you to watch a PBS News special on Friday, June 13.   The show, “Now,” is a collaboration between PBS reporter Maria Hinojosa and Nation magazine reporter Joshua Kors.  They tell the story of Sergeant Chuck Luther, who was struck by mortar fire in Iraq, then jailed until he agreed to sign papers saying his wounds were pre-existing.  Luther is an eloquent speaker with a powerful story. VCS hopes you’ll tune in – and share this message with friends and family so they can see what’s happening to so many of our soldiers.

Alphabetical listing of air times for PBS special “Now” — all dates are for Friday, June 13 unless shown otherwise

* If your city isn’t listed below, please click here for local air times: www.pbs.org/now/sched.html *

Albequerque:  8 PM

Amherst, MA:  8:30 PM

Arlington, VA:  10 PM

Atlanta:  2:30 PM (Sunday, June 15)

Atlantic City, NJ:  10:30 PM

Austin, TX:  7:30 PM

Baltimore:  10 PM

Bangor, ME:  10 PM

Berkeley, CA:  11 PM

Birmingham, AL:  3:30 AM (Sunday, June 15)

Boston:  8:30 PM

Buffalo:  10:30 AM (Sunday, June 15)

Cedar Rapid, IA:  8:30 PM

Charleston, SC:  8:30 PM

Cincinnati:  8:30 PM

Cleveland:  9:30 PM

Colorado Springs, CO:  8:30 PM

Columbia, SC:  8:30 PM

Columbus, OH:  8:30 PM

Dallas:  8 PM

Denver:  8:30 PM

Des Moines:  8:30 PM

Detroit:  11 AM (Sunday, June 15)

Eugene, OR:  4 AM (Saturday, June 14)

Findlay, OH:  8:30 PM

Flint, MI:  8:30 PM

Fort Wayne, IN:  7:30 PM

Hartford, CT:  1:30 AM

Houston:  7:30 PM

Indianapolis:  8:30 PM

Iowa City:  8:30 PM

Jackson, MS:  7:30 PM

Kansas City, MO:  9 AM (Sunday, June 15)

Killeen, TX:  7:30 PM

Manchester, NH:  8:30 PM 

Miami:  11 AM (Sunday, June 22)

Minneapolis:  8:30 PM

Jacksonville, FL:  9 PM

Knoxville, TN:  8:30 PM

Las Vegas:  8:30 PM

Lexington, KT:  9:30 PM

Los Angeles:  9:30 PM

Louisville, KT:  9:30 PM

Madison, WI:  8 PM

Memphis:  8:30 AM (Sunday, June 15)

Milwakee:  7:30 PM

Montgomery, AL:  3:30 AM (Sunday, June 15)

Nashville:  9:30 PM

New Orleans:  12:30 AM (Saturday, June 14)

New York:  8:30 PM

Oakland:  11 PM

Oklahoma City:  7:30 PM

Orlando, FL:  8:30 PM

Philadelphia:  10:30 PM

Phoenix:  7:30 PM

Pittsburgh:  8:30 PM

Portland, ME:  10 PM

Portland, OR:  4 AM (Saturday, June 14)

Reno:  8:30 PM

Richmond, VA:  9:30 PM

Sacramento:  7:30 PM

Salt Lake City:  8 PM

San Antonio:  4:30 PM (Sunday, June 15)

San Diego:  8:30 PM

San Francisco:  11 PM

Santa Monica, CA:  9:30 PM

Seattle:  8 PM

Springfield, IL:  12:30 AM (Saturday, June 14)

Springfield, MA:  8:30 PM

St. George, UT:  8 PM

St. Louis:  7:30 PM

Tallahassee:  8:30 PM

Tampa:  9:30 PM (Friday, June 20)

Tempe, AZ:  7:30 PM

Toledo, OH:  10 PM

Topeka, KS:  10:30 PM (Sunday, June 15)

Tucson, AZ:  8:30 PM

Tulsa, OK:  7:30 PM

Urbana, IL:  7:30 PM

Walnut Creek, CA:  11 PM

Washington, DC:  10 PM

June 11, 2008 – About two-thirds of the soldiers at three Army bases who had “significant” physical problems were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan anyway, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office survey released Tuesday.

The GAO also reported that documents assessing soldiers’ physical fitness were missing from hundreds of the medical records it reviewed, and that some soldiers with serious medical conditions did not get required evaluations before they were sent to war.

“I think the message of the report is clear. The Army is not following its own rules. It’s a problem,” said Brenda Farrell, the report’s author.

The report was delivered to the House Armed Services Committee, which had asked two questions:

Was the Army adhering to its own rules concerning deployments of soldiers with medical limitations? Was the Army assigning soldiers with medical conditions to suitable jobs?

The GAO was unable to answer the second question, partly because it received a limited response from soldiers it tried to survey. The responses it did get “suggest that both soldiers and commanders believe soldiers are generally assigned to duties that accommodated their medical conditions,” it reported.

Farrell said the GAO did not find widespread evidence that officers were revising medical reports to deploy injured soldiers. It did find poor management of records critical to deployment decisions. In a survey of 685 soldiers’ medical records, 213 physical profiles — documents describing a soldier’s fitness — were missing.

House Armed Services Committee chairman Ike Skelton said he was concerned that some medically unfit soldiers are being sent to war.

“The GAO report confirms that some soldiers have fallen through the cracks,” he said. “. . . Readiness requirements cannot be met by deploying injured or ill service members.”

The Army concurred with three GAO recommendations: to ensure soldiers with significant medical limitations are evaluated properly before deploying; to improve its record-keeping; and to provide an independent ombudsman for soldiers and their families.

“The GAO looked at a small fraction of the Army’s present forces from three Army posts,” spokesman Paul Boyce said. “Many of their findings and three recommendations already have been addressed in the past year with changes to our system.”

The GAO survey was based on a random sample of soldiers preparing to deploy from Fort Benning and Fort Stewart in Georgia and Fort Drum in New York in 2006 and 2007.

The GAO estimated that 86 percent of the 685 soldiers sampled did not have any serious physical limitations. But “of the estimated 14 percent who had such medical conditions, approximately two-thirds were deployed,” the report said.

It also found that 6 percent of the deployed soldiers had permanent medical conditions, and nearly half of those “did not receive needed (medical) board evaluations.”

Those conditions included herniated discs and back pain, chronic knee pain, Type 2 diabetes, and mild asthma.

The GAO report did not examine any deployments from Fort Carson, one of several bases where media reports suggested the Army was using injured soldiers to meet extended combat demands in Iraq.

In January, The Denver Post reported that the surgeon for Fort Carson’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team acknowledged in an e-mail that “borderline soldiers” were being sent to war because “we have been having issues reaching deployable strength.”

June 10, 2008 – Insomnia among U.S. combat veterans returning from Iraq is as severe as that seen in patients with chronic insomnia, according to University of Pittsburgh researchers.

They compared 14 vets with post-deployment adjustment disorders to 14 insomnia patients and 14 good sleepers, and found that the vets displayed significantly more severe disruptive nocturnal behaviors, such as nightmares and body movements, than people in the other two groups.

Insomnia complaints among the vets were as severe as complaints among insomnia patients, and the vets had significantly worse sleep quality than good sleepers.

“These findings highlight the urgent need for sleep-focused assessments and treatments in this new group of combat-exposed military veterans,” principal investigator Anne Germain said in a prepared statement.

The findings were expected to be presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, in Baltimore.

A study presented at the meeting Monday concluded that a combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment for insomnia may be effective among veterans returning from Iraq.

The study included five male veterans, aged 25 to 37, who’d had insomnia for one to five years. All of them spent 15 to 23 months in Iraq over one to three deployments. Researchers found that the veterans preferred relaxation therapy and pharmacological treatment followed by stimulus control instructions, sleep restriction therapy, mindfulness-based intervention, and sleep education and hygiene.

Electronic approaches such as MP3 files and the Internet were the preferred non-pharmacological treatment delivery methods, using four weeks of 30- to 60-minute treatment in the evening or with 24-hour access. Three veterans took daily sleep diaries home, and two completed the diaries using a daily voice mail service.

“These preferences may reflect the technology savvy of this new era of veterans. An Internet-based, non-medication intervention could supplement the pharmacological treatment available in routine care,” study author Dana R. Epstein, of the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care System, said in a prepared statement.